Do people still read blogs?

Ever rediscover your old blog that you haven't looked at in 8 years is somehow still functional?

Amazingly, the readership has remained steady (zero). Its like finding my old journal from high school when I didn't have the courage to ask a girl out so every day I would record what snacks I bought her at lunch. She ate my snacks but then eventually dated another guy.

History is basically a form of pattern recognition. 

There is nothing more sad that seeing your own past pathetic earnestness laid bare in stark black and white. The essays and art posted here were meant to gain a foothold in the comics industry. Much like the girl from high school, the objects of my pursuit almost always choose to go with a more promising suitor. No matter how much I think I have to offer there seems to be someone ready to make you a better offer. My comics collaborator James Hitchcock would often comment how much the comics industry was like going to a school dance where everyone was looking to pair up with a better suitor. Jim was going through a divorce so most of his advance was in the form of relationship metaphors. 

Ever look at your life and realize that you seem stuck in patterns that you are somehow unable to break? Is it fate, genetics, a social class system we pretend doesn't exist in America, my own failings as a human being? It would be nice to feel like I had ever made any progress toward any of my goals but like the snacks bought for someone who seemed oblivious that they came with other intentions, the blog posts and other online activities in the past always amount in watching the object of my pursuit find happiness elsewhere.

I spent untold hours engaging in message board discussions and various other activities that for most people lead to connections in the industry, making a friend, finding a collaborator or even (GASP) a fan. When I meet someone online I look into them, read their bio, follow the link to their portfolio or blog or whatever else they have done. Even close friends and co-workers who offer effusive praise of my skills without prompting aren't interested in my other pursuits. I learned this lesson the hard way when I published a comic, assuming the break even costs might be met by people I knew and that I only had to grow out from that base of support I was always promised existed yet even a $1 "ash can" comic book was too much for them to support. I even remember one co-worker saying "don't I get a free copy?

It's really hitting me now how alone I feel and how finding this dead blog is like being shown the ghosts of Christmas past but without the portions where I get the epiphany of knowing what mistakes I need to correct. The funny thing is all the pursuits I have engaged in since this period have unfolded the exact same way.

Looking back at this blog the broken links seems very poetic. The long screeds about the comics industry that were never read, the promises to myself that it was all going somewhere, the art posted that went almost entirely unseen. All of it feels like a metaphor for my life. Here I am, with nothing to show for it all and starting all over from zero.

I don't even know what it is I am starting. Or maybe this is the ending. 

Taking an art break

I haven't been drawing much lately as I've been working hard on doing stand up comedy. I've been getting a lot more positive feedback from comedy than I had been my art so I've been really working at it. It's been going fairly well. Here's proof. These are highlights from a few of my 13 comedy shows, mostly open mics around West Michigan:

A talk with Joe Willy

Ken at The Lottery Party asked to interview me a while back. I wasn't going to turn down an interview but I was definitely happy to do one with him since most interviews in comics seem to me like press releases rewritten with obvious "questions" that lead to pre-programmed answers that check off every marketing talking point one by one, but I knew with him it would be different. He's got a pretty interesting mind and there's not enough people in comics besides him with the ability to really lay out a good argument without resorting to some sort of hipster one-upsmanship of references in a comics dork version of Dennis Miller by way of Gary Groth. Anyway, I started connecting a bit with him on Twitter (his account has since been deleted for mysterious reasons). He runs a really amazing site which people should check out if they're into comics and fringe culture. He has a ton of reviews, interviews and in-depth discussions of culture and whatever else is in his head at any given time.

I was pretty candid with my answers and he surprised me with the quality of his questions. I think it made for a really great talk though I know will you charge me with having a bias. You can read the interview here.

Another review

Richard at The Lottery Party gave some love Red Flags #1. The original, groundbreaking series from Red Flag Publishing! Check out his review here.

A review

We recently had a review of Red Flags #2 (vol. 2 no. 1 actually - because that's the kind of shit you have to do in comics to get people to notice. As if I know... which I don't so please read the review and then go buy the book at IndyPlanet!

http://thelotteryparty.com/red-flags-vol-2-1/

http://indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4182

Mister Makabre: motion comic or trailer?

I made this video a couple of days ago in iMovie. It's almost a motion comic without the bad animation. But it's also like a long trailer that's a bit more than a tease (though it does show a little leg). Anyway, it's to promote my latest comics story. A nasty little story about economic anti-heroes who go after the big bankers who destroyed the economy. Enjoy a taste:

Chaos&Main

A couple months back I went to an improv workshop and after a call back audition was asked to join a new group starting at a theatre just outside of Battle Creek, Michigan. These are some quick posters I pulled together for our next shows. Someone in-house at the theatre did postcards for our first show and I was trying to pitch that I could do something a bit better so this was more like a proposal which why I have the placeholder TBA dates.

Sans lettering

Wood Nymph

Archer

This was done on my old eMac when the monitor was going bad. It got so fuzzy I could hardly see  the details. This was one of the last pieces I did on it before finally upgrading.